The Cubs combined for only two hits, both singles, yesterday, and made Dan Straily, the A's pitcher who had just returned from AAA, with a 5. something ERA, look like Nolan freakin Ryan. With a final score of 1-0, there's really nothing much to talk about in this game, because barely anything happened. Of course the A's scored their run on a dropped third strike, as the team to make the first mistake in this game was going to lose. Of course it was the Cubes, uh...I mean Cubs who botched it, as a swing and a miss strikeout rolled between Wellington Castillo's legs allowing a run to score. The Cubs are third in passed balls, and 7th in Wild Pitches, so what happened yesterday was not an anomaly to anyone who has watched the Chicago Cubs this year. We have great hitting missers...not catchers...Matt Guerrier, the man on the mound for the Cubs, when Castillo botched the strikeout, did his best Carlos Marmol impression as well, the man he was traded for, by allowing 2 hits and 2 walks in the 7th inning, so you can't put it all on Castillo. If Derrier pitches well, I mean Guerrier, there is nobody on third. But the new Cubs bullpen hand had better learn fast that these Chicago Cubs rarely give you a comfortable lead, and you better be perfect, or you will lose.
So far so bad with the new guy we got for Marmol, but Pedro Strop, who we got for Feldman was another story, 1 perfect scoreless inning. Strop pitched 66.1 innings last year, and had an ERA of 2.44, so hopefully he can be part of the future bullpen improvement the Cubs so sorely need. If we had had a decent bullpen this year, what with Shawn Camp totally overused last year, and garbage this year, the Marmol train, and Fujikawa's season ending injury, the Cubs could be a .500 team. However, it seems like something Cubs brass is addressing with the addition of Strop. The Cubs need another lefty in the pen for certain, as I fear James Russel is currently being misused. Russel, our lone lefty in the bullpen has been good, really good at times, but he's being mismanaged currently. He has pitched more innings than ANY of our other bullpen guys, except Villanueva who was a starter the first half. Against leftys, Russel has a mid 2's ERA, and Righty's give him nearly a 4 ERA. So basically, Russel should just pitch to leftys, but because of a lack of competent pitchers in the pen, Sveum leaves him in there, and half the time, he faces a Righty, and...boom...There goes the ball game. Hopefully Guerrier and Strop will add a little depth, and Sveum can use Russel properly. It's fine that Russels pitched in half the games, the question is, why is he pitching to righty's 40% of the time?
So, the Cubs are home for quite the long, pre All Star break homestand starting at 3:05 against the first place Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, you read that right....the Pirates! This game should be hopping today, as I couldn't get a decent cheap seat on the Stub Hub, and actually had to buy myself a nosebleed seat at full price, which by the way, is still almost 30$ a ticket. That's a garbage price. Total garbage. Upper deck reserved behind a pole for 30 bones? I'm moving down people, get my moneys worth. These 3:05 starts are gonna be the death of my pocket book. Business man's special means, Son Ranto is poor now. These 3:05 starts are perfect for the working man to knock off early on a Friday in summer, put back a few, and still be home in time to tuck the kids in. But what about unemployed bloggers? What are we to do? The cheapest ticket should be 15$, the same as an IMAX movie. The Cubs also charge all these convenience fees, per ticket, so for example, I bought two tix at the box office yesterday, and with taxes and everything it was 58$. Now compare that to buying two tix for today from the Cubs Website, which is totally automated and involves no workers. There's a "convenience fee" of nearly 5$ a ticket and an order fee of 4$. What the hell is that? Convenient? You have to print your own tix!! What's convenient about that? A family of 4 will pay nearly 40$ in taxes and fees, to NOT be helped by an actual person. Nearly 140$ total plus all the hot dogs, and soda and beer. Easily 200$. And this is for a fourth place team....
If my family had had to pay the equivalent when I was a kid, I might not be a Cubs fan. We didn't have cable either, so I woulda missed half the games this year. My father used to bribe us to go to CCD, which is Catholic Education, that my Mom made us go to, by telling us he'd take us to the game if we went without a fuss. This was in 83-89 ish, and I believe we paid 1/5 the price to sit behind a pole. 1/5!!!! I'm only 39 years old, and I already sound like my Grandma who complained about prices being triple. The prices have quintupled!!!! Anyone have their salary quintuple? And bleachers? That was my summer babysitter from age 10 on....4$ is what it cost. I'm not saying the Cubs have to go back to 1983 prices. I'm just saying, that there should be some way to make certain that families have access to the games. I was going to bring my sisters kids today, but I can't afford it. Can the Cubs afford to have no future fans? Well....I guess they only want the rich kids....The Rickett's understand them better anyway....
OK...off soapbox, lets play spoiler the rest of the year. Cubs win today! St. Louis and the Reds lose.
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